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SAFETY ALERTS
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UPDATED July 23 2009
The Australian Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) have begun
clinical trials of of H1N1 Swine Influenza vaccine. The trials involving
over 200 are not expected to be completed in time to produce an
effective vaccine before the peak flu period in Australia. In
expectation of eventual success the Australian government has ordered 21
million vaccination doses and the United Kingdom has ordered over 100
million, each order being sufficient to vaccinate the entire
populations.
Originally posted June 22nd 2009
As we previously forecast the World Health Organisation officially declared the H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu a pandemic on June 12th 2009. The virus is now infecting close to 100 countries with almost 50 000 confirmed cases and 200 confirmed deaths. Exponential growth of confirmed case of app 8% continues.
In first world countries with high quality medical facilities death rates are being held at less than one quarter of one percent or roughly 1 death for every 400 individuals that contract the swine flu. These numbers do rise to up to 1.5 percent in Mexico.
The trigger for the pandemic classification was the startling rise in confirmed cases in Australia. Heading into the southern hemisphere winter with a much earlier than usual blast of cold weather presented a perfect breeding ground for the virus. Combined with the highly variable weather conditions in some states and it should come as no surprise that the virus took hold quickly there.
By September the same conditions will start to present themselves in the Northern hemisphere and countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kindom and Europe will be open to accelerated infection rates. The good news is there may be just enough time to produce a vaccine to protect against the most dangerous strains hopefully reducing the opportunities for the virus to mutate into a much more deadly strain.
Originally posted April 30th 2009
The swine flu or H1N1 flu outbreak has accelerated with cases increasing exponentially and the world health organization has suggested it is approaching pandemic proportions. The WHO have stated that all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans and implement heightened surveilance for early detection and treatment to minimize spread.
Since the swine flu discovery in Mexico, CDC and WHO officials have been acting to contain the outbreak however appear to have failed with laboratory confirmed human cases having spread to the Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. Potential cases have been reported in other areas of Europe, Australia and throughout Asia. As such with the confirmed death of a 2 year old in the United States it is for all intents and purposes now an unofficial pandemic. Current hot spots in the USA are california, New York and Texas with other states having much fewer confirmed cases at this time.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is moving to
increase the availability of antivrals as this threat increases.
Hospitalizations of people world wide is simply the start of what is to come as additional confirmed cases are acknowledged every few minutes.
A brief history of Influenza A
Swine flu is a form of the influenza A virus that can be transfered from pigs or swine as the name suggests to humans. Unlike Avian influenza which could only be contracted via close contact with birds, this strain of swine flu is contracted via human to human contact. Swine flu is not a new disease, in fact it hasprobably been with us since the domestication of pigs and reached epidemic proportions on numerous occasions under varying descriptions.
What is swine flu
Quite simply it is a strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1. This is a variation of the regular
influenza strain for which we get our influenza immuniazation each year. Unfortunately the current immunization does not currently protect us from swine flu, however you can garantee that researchers will feverishly working toward an effective vaccine as you read this. This form of swine flu appears to be particulalry virulent and its spread is occuring at a much accerated rate.
Further reading on combating the
swine flu H1N1 influenza virus pandemic,
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The
current swine flu (H1N1 influenza) pandemic represents the greatest threat to life that
this planet has seen in decades. Not only is this a previously unseen
strain of the subtype H1N1 influenza A virus but it incorparates a
combination of several viruses. There is genetic material from four
different virus sources, those being the North American swine influenza
viruses, North American avian influenza viruses, human influenza
viruses and swine influenza viruses found in Asia and Europe.